Stephen K Amos brings his grin and tonic to St David’s Hall

He’s the stylish comic with an irrepressible take on life, but as Stephen K Amos reveals to Dave Owens the dark thoughts of his younger days are proving the basis for the big laughs in his new live show

He's the stylish comic with an irrepressible take on life, but as Stephen K Amos reveals to Dave Owens the dark thoughts of his younger days are proving the basis for the big laughs in his new live show

STEPHEN K Amos is 12 dates into a mammoth 78-date trek around the UK and hes already suffering a bout of tour lag.

Theres a gap in his busy schedule on the day we speak and I naturally assume he has his feet up at his London home, contemplating his navel.

Not a bit of it, he laughs, I did a corporate gig for Sony last night at Gleneagles in Scotland and Im currently in a car on my way to Edinburgh to catch a flight to London to spend three hours at my house before I head off to do another gig tonight.

His show, north of the border, for the electronics giant is a sure sign of the appeal of the easygoing comic and his sizeable loquacious charm.

A regular fixture on TV, the 42-year-old comedian famed for his intelligent wit and well-spoken eloquence has made numerous appearances on Have I Got News For You, Mock The Week and Live At The Apollo. However, it was his debut television series the Stephen K Amos Show, that looked set to propel him to another level altogether.

As he is the first to admit, not everything went according to plan. Aired on BBC Two at 10pm on a Friday evening, the show bore the brunt of some decidedly mixed reviews. It was even on the end of a particularly spiky barb from Jonathan Ross at last weekends British Comedy Awards.

Well if Im honest I tried not to listen to any of it, he confesses, veering on the side of tact and diplomacy at the mention of that particular incident.

Its easy to criticise, TV critics have an easy job, but if you have never made a TV programme yourself how can you comment? Those who come to see my live shows are the people that I want to reach, Im not doing it for the critics.

Its the only point during our enjoyable conversation that the irrepressibly upbeat comic shows anything that comes close to resembling irritation.

The trouble is most people dont know the background to the show and what happened, he reveals.

It was sketch-based comedy, something different for me to try, away from the stand up.

Stephen is sanguine about the shows future and hopes to have a crack at a second series.

I learnt an awful lot making the first, he says.

Its a completely different discipline. Well be having meetings about the show next week, so Id love to have another shot and do it again with the benefit of everything Ive learnt.

The comic, whose Nigerian parents came to the UK in the 60s, has faced many hurdles in his life, so a run in with critics is hardly likely to faze him. He grew up in a family of seven children, and jokes about how he honed his early performing skills, having to show off to get noticed.

Do you know what its like when your parents have so many children they cant remember your name or call you by your sisters name? he recalls ruefully.

His younger travails form the basis of his latest show, Best Medicine. Its centred around the angst-ridden diary he wrote when he was a teenager, an artefact recently unearthed by a family member.

It (the show) came out of finding the diary I wrote when I was 13 it was so funny to remember the crazy stuff that really mattered to me at the time, he recalls.

Stuff about how I hated my parents and wanted to run away from home.

Presumably because they kept getting his name wrong.

Im naturally an upbeat, positive person, so if I could talk to my 13-year-old self now, Id say life is too short, you never know whats round the corner, he adds.

Eventually youll grow up and realise that certain things cant be changed.

I ask Stephen, who is openly gay, how difficult it must have been to grow up black and homosexual in London during the 70s and 80s.

Well the one thing you can hide if you choose if you are gay or lesbian is your sexuality, he explains.

What you cant hide is your race. And to be black growing up in those times was difficult. There wasnt much tolerance around.

As for the question of being gay, I completely swept it under the carpet. I just never addressed it, he confesses.

I ask him when he came out to his parents.

I havent, he chuckles. I never had that conversation. I think they twigged when I stopped bringing girls home and turned up with my best friend Dave, which turned into best friend Barry, only to be replaced by my best friend Richard!

Its apparent that the comedian, who is quite the dandy cutting a stylish figure in tailor-made suits, is more than comfortable with who he is and where hes at. For now hes happy to be swept along the highways and byways of this great country.

Once youve seen one motorway youve seen them all, he points out.

I spend most car journeys trying to have a kip. Ill just take it one day at a time. Most comedians will tell you they do tend to suffer a form of madness before a tour ends.

Stephen K Amos appears at St Davids Hall on Monday, January 31. Tickets priced £18.50 are available from the box office on 029 2087 8444 or via www.stdavidshallcardiff.co.uk